


like ships in the night we can hide from the other one

by shinealightonme



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 06:48:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17116451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinealightonme/pseuds/shinealightonme
Summary: Adam talks in his sleep.





	like ships in the night we can hide from the other one

**Author's Note:**

> I guess my new insomnia coping mechanism is "make up new ficlets like you don't already have 32 wips" so what's a girl to do

"Lynch."

Ronan stirs. He's having an endless night, the kind where there's no chance of falling asleep, the kind that used to leave him desperate and aching and pissed off. Sometimes it still does. Sometimes he can lie next to Adam and soak up the sounds of Adam sleeping like it's reviving him, too.

So he's a little annoyed at Adam for waking up.

"What?"

"Move your car," Adam says.

Of all of the things that Adam could be annoyed with him for in the middle of the night, he hadn't expected _his car_. "What are you talking about?"

"It's blocking the driveway."

"So? It's my driveway."

"I can't get my car out."

It's not like Ronan can always understand what the hell Adam is talking about, but confusion usually resolves quickly and turns out that Adam was right all along. This...doesn't fit that pattern. "Where the fuck are you going at four in the morning?"

"I'm going to miss discovery."

Adam's not even _in_ discovery this semester, and it's _four in the morning_ , he could hop on one leg and get there before school starts -- so that's the point where Ronan is weirded out enough he sits up and leans over.

Adam's eyes are shut.

Just in case, he says in a whisper, "Parrish?"

Adam just sort of sighs and nuzzles his head into the pillow.

Adam is asleep. But Adam was just talking.

Ronan grins wickedly. "Parrish, you _fucking dork._ "

Adam mumbles "pineapple" and Ronan has to shove his fist in his face so he won't laugh.

-

It isn't every night, or even most nights. Even Ronan is able to sleep sometimes, and there's plenty of nights where Adam is content to do nothing more than lie prone and maybe drool on Ronan's pillows.

But some nights it happens, and it's fucking _hilarious_ :

Adam argues, increasingly exasperated, with someone who thinks he's a cat.

Adam works his way through the second declension but keeps switching nouns: _equus, pueri, belli_ , and it's even funnier for the fact that he skips right over _somnus_.

Adam mumbles his way through a string of words that, when Ronan googles them, turns out to be the second verse of Call Me Maybe. He finally understands Cheng's obsession with recording shit on his phone.

Ronan had always thought sleep talking just meant spouting out nonsense, but Adam can hold a _conversation_ in his sleep. Not one that makes sense, but he knows when he's been asked a question and he responds. Some people may not understand the humor in asking your boyfriend lewd questions and getting "I can't find the light switch" or "the library is on fire" in response. Those people are wrong.

Sometimes it's less fun. There's a month where every time Adam talks in his sleep, it's to Gansey. Every last one of those dreams sounds like pure dull bullshit, but that doesn't stop Ronan from being disgruntled and offended and annoyed that Adam's subconscious couldn't be assed to talk to him _once_ in a whole fucking month but it has so much to say to _Gansey_.

And then sometimes it flat out sucks:

"I'm sorta cold, actually."

By now Ronan can recognize Adam's sleep voice. It's not very different from his normal voice, but it's a little slow and a little slurred.

Ronan knows a lot about dreams, but that doesn't always translate over to how other people have dreams. Still, if Adam's dreaming about being cold, maybe he really is cold. Ronan stretches down for the blanket at the foot of the bed and pulls it up.

"Nh," Adam groans, not quite _no_. "I'm good."

"Fuck you too, Parrish, see if I help you anymore."

"'T's'not that hot in the shade."

The sloppy conjunction freezes Ronan's blood, the exacting deliberate casualness of it ringing out like a bell. He doesn't know his part in this conversation, or not exactly. There were enough of them that they blur together: him and Adam and Gansey, spring days that might as well have been summer, thanks global warming, the air shimmering with heat, and there was Adam with his long sleeves smiling and insisting he didn't need to take his shirt off.

Ronan kicks Adam's foot.

Harder than he meant to, really, but stupid Adam is a stupid heavy sleeper. Before he's really thought about it he's grabbing Adam's shoulder and shaking it.

"Ronan?" Adam waking up sounds sleepier than Adam asleep, somehow. It gives him away; Ronan dodges when Adam tries to knock his hand away. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Adam waits, like he thinks there's more. He's going to be disappointed.

"Okay." Adam rubs his face. "What the hell did you wake me up for?"

"You were sleep talking." Ronan puts on a petulant voice. "It was keeping me up."

"Oh, because your nighttime habits never disturb me." Adam props himself up on one elbow and looks up at Ronan through bleary eyes. "I don't talk in my sleep."

"How would you know? You're asleep."

"The trailer barely had walls, if I ever talked in my sleep I would have heard about it," and there's that gut punch again, while Adam just yawns like it's nothing. "Is'at'all?"

"Fine," Ronan snaps. "Go back to sleep. Sorry I woke you up."

Adam falls back onto the bed and covers his face with his hands. "Okay, are you ready to talk about it now?"

"Talk about _what_?"

"Whatever it is that really made you wake me up?"

Ronan huffs. "No."

Adam stares at him again, more waiting for something that Ronan's never going to say, and then he curls a hand around Ronan's bicep and tugs.

"Ow."

"Just lie down, would you?"

Ronan lies down, tense and contained like a body in a coffin.

Adam crawls up over half his chest, ignoring how uninviting Ronan is making himself, and lays sprawled up over him.

Ronan sighs. Adam is heavy, and he knows it, and he has pokey elbows that are somehow both jabbing him in the gut at the same time, which can't be anything but deliberate. He shouldn't cave, but fuck, Adam knows how to be a pain when he wants to.

He rolls onto his side and they settle in facing each other. Adam drapes an arm over Ronan's side. His hand reaches up to rest against Ronan's back.

"Hey." Adam clears his throat. His face is somewhere between _trying to swallow day-old Nino's pizza_ and _pretending some shit the teacher is saying is interesting._ "Things are pretty good, right?"

Ronan blinks at him.

"I mean, it's not -- perfect." Adam's eyes skitter away from Ronan, who is too fucking gobsmacked at hearing Adam talk about his feelings to be offended about that. "And maybe things are never going to be easy, but -- we have each other. And that's something. That's a lot."

Ronan opens his mouth to say...anything, but he can't think of a single fucking word. He's freaked out and humbled and so, so amazed, that even in the shadow of the trailer Adam can say shit like this.

"And Gansey and Matthew and everyone," Adam continues, word after awkward word. "You've got them too."

Ronan shuts his mouth.

He opens it again.

"I...have them," he repeats slowly.

"Yeah," Adam says. His voice comes out louder with relief. "So it's -- you're fine, Ronan."

Ronan tries to say something. Really. _I know I'm fine_ or _shut up and let me help you_ or _this is my turn to be the sane one._

He _could_ have said something, if Adam hadn't hogged the one scrap of emotional intelligence that they have between them.

But if he's trying to help, he can let Adam have this one.

Ronan scoots closer along the mattress and tucks his head under Adam's chin. Presses his face against his chest, so he can feel Adam exhale, a long shaky breath, _oh, thank God, I didn't know that was going to work_. Ronan decides there's absolutely no reason in the world to tell him that it didn't work, it wasn't even in the right neighborhood, it was the worst fucking pep talk of all time.

He breathes out, and it's not too steady, either. He breathes in, and he can feel the warmth of Adam's hand pressing into his back.

Eventually he says, "I wasn't making shit up. You talk in your sleep."

Adam mulls this over. His finger tips tap lightly along Ronan's spine, some indefinable code.

"Do I say anything interesting?"

"Your dreams are boring as shit," Ronan says. "And they're all about Gansey."

For the first time all night Adam sounds openly upset. "No. No way."

"Why do _you_ sound betrayed," Ronan complains. "I'm the one who has to listen to you talk to some other guy in your sleep -- "

"Jesus, fine, next time I dream about Gansey you have my permission to wake me up."

"I don't want to _disturb_ you."

"I _demand_ that you wake me up," but he's laughing. His chin digs into Ronan's scalp and his breath makes the hairs on the back of Ronan's neck stand up.

It's not perfect, but Adam has it, and Ronan has it too.

**Author's Note:**

> At some point Ronan tells Adam "you're sleeping for two" and Adam claims he will never be able to sleep again because of how creepy that statement is. 
> 
> If you like this fic you can [reblog it on tumblr](http://toast-the-unknowing.tumblr.com/post/181340026285/like-ships-in-the-night-we-can-hide-from-the-other)!


End file.
